Complete Schedule

Internal Political Efficacy, Gender and Vote Choice

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

As of 2014, the United States ranks eightieth in the world for the number of women in Congress (IPU 2014). As a leader in the democratic world, the United States falls behind in promoting women into positions of power. This research attempts to examine this gap from the position of voter selection using an experimental design with eighty-eight university students in which each subject takes part in a hypothetical election. This study connects previous research on gender and vote choice with internal political efficacy by including stereotype formation. Individuals attribute personal deficits and strengths to their gender group, forming stereotypes about their gender (Oswald and Lindstedt 2006). Therefore, it is hypothesized that women with low internal political efficacy will attribute their lack of confidence to their gender and prefer a male candidate. Along with internal political efficacy and gender, political ideology and opponent gender serve as independent variables. The dependent variable is vote choice. The results of a logit model and chi-square models do not show a significant relationship between any of the independent variables and vote choice, except for political ideology. The results for political ideology are mixed and serve as a point for future research.

Start Date

25-4-2015 1:30 PM

End Date

25-4-2015 2:30 PM

Faculty Advisor

Chris Larimer

Comments

Moderator: Anne Woodrick, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Location: Sabin Hall, Room 25

File Format

application/pdf

Electronic copy is not available through UNI ScholarWorks.

Comments?

Share

COinS
 
Apr 25th, 1:30 PM Apr 25th, 2:30 PM

Internal Political Efficacy, Gender and Vote Choice

As of 2014, the United States ranks eightieth in the world for the number of women in Congress (IPU 2014). As a leader in the democratic world, the United States falls behind in promoting women into positions of power. This research attempts to examine this gap from the position of voter selection using an experimental design with eighty-eight university students in which each subject takes part in a hypothetical election. This study connects previous research on gender and vote choice with internal political efficacy by including stereotype formation. Individuals attribute personal deficits and strengths to their gender group, forming stereotypes about their gender (Oswald and Lindstedt 2006). Therefore, it is hypothesized that women with low internal political efficacy will attribute their lack of confidence to their gender and prefer a male candidate. Along with internal political efficacy and gender, political ideology and opponent gender serve as independent variables. The dependent variable is vote choice. The results of a logit model and chi-square models do not show a significant relationship between any of the independent variables and vote choice, except for political ideology. The results for political ideology are mixed and serve as a point for future research.